Great Depression tale of community, cleverness, and hard work.

Tagline: We live! We love! We fight! We hate! What don't we do for
- OUR DAILY BREAD

Here's the IMDB
page.


This movie is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: King Vidor
Producer: King Vidor (uncredited)
Production Company: King W. Vidor Productions (as Viking Productions Inc.)
Audio/Visual: sound, b/w
Keywords: drama; Great Depression

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 41,360 times Reviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: dwpbike - - December 24, 2010
Subject: helping each other is what this country is about
the movie dealt with the political angle early on, so what is griping about? this isn't about politics, it's about working together. if there's anything to fuss about, it's their reliance on a single crop. subsistence farming might be a better choice, even today.

Reviewer: Retrokevin1 - - August 3, 2010
Subject: An Interesting Concept
I liked the movie because it show that in hard times people can work together to achieve good this. Our hero Johnny was an inspiration to this group of folks. However it was obvious that his inspiration came from his sweet wife. I wish this movie could have shown a little more of him coming to that realization. Yet when he returned we could only see his focus on bringing the water to the land. His wife gives him a drink of water while he helps the others dig the trench and all he could do was say "thanks." His devotion to her was pretty shot-sighted. Her character could have bailed on him at anytime, but she only returned a kind smile. The focus of this movie was about conquering the land. However we didn't see much about a man conquering his inner temptations.

Reviewer: Ed Jr - - January 25, 2010
Subject: Golden Oldies
Well, I see that our three Socialists loved it. But even as propaganda it was just plain lousy. It was written by a jerk who didn't know anything but what he read in a book and he didn't learn that very well. He sure as hell didn't know a thing about farming. The acting was lousy, the plot stunk, the dialog was lousy. Is it any wonder no one wanted it. Utopias don't exist and the attempt to establish them always end in dictatorship.

Reviewer: golftee419 - - July 22, 2009
Subject: what a movie
This movie is a must see , i am very glad i downloaded it , enjoyed it , wish i could give this a 10 , cheers

Reviewer: deck - - January 2, 2009
Subject: Controversial in its time.
King Vidor could get little no backing for this movie but was determined to make it. He even sold his limo to get money. It was panned by critics in the US and USSR. The Americans said it was a communist film and the communists said it was capitalist propaganda. I think it is a really good movie. This is probably the only non-western that I have ever seen Tom Keene make.It took nerve to make this during the depression and my hat comes of to King Vidor for having stuff to make it.

Reviewer: speedyturtle - - May 21, 2008
Subject: Terrific
It's an inspiring movie showing how man can work together for a common goal. It was either do it or starve. We too often don't follow this example. They don't make movies like this anymore. I'm just amazed I'd never seen it.

Reviewer: Rybak - - May 18, 2008
Subject: Optimism
O.K., you can say this film is naive, but it is great in its optimism and an important vote for solidarity. Worth watching! Good directed by King Vidor. Good Cast.

Reviewer: sciwriter - - May 13, 2008
Subject: The American way
This was the American version of a "tractor driver" movie produced in many countries during the 1930's which showed how spirited farmers with the help of a tractor ended crop failure resulting in a bumper harvest.

Of course, for example, in the following countries this spiritedness was due to inspiration from:

. Soviet Union-Stalin's Communist collectivization.

. Italy--.Mussolini's Fascist controlled patriotic cooperation in
privatized farming.

In Our Daily Bread, the farmers are self motivated by their own free innovative and cooperative spirit.. Initially they try collectivization, but that didn't work because it destroyed incentive. So they tried extreme Capitalism, but that also didn't work because it resulted in excessive selfishness. They used a combination of cooperative principles, free enterprise and freedom of choice, and that worked. That's the American way.

Reviewer: Fireball Steve Zodiac - - May 13, 2008
Subject: This is the United States of America
Sounds corny but when the going gets rough, this movie very well depicts how Americans come together. A good drama.